


Lake Pontchartrain

by Doceo_Percepto, Sp00py



Series: Broken Toys [2]
Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Crying, F/M, mono is a monster, spoilers for LN2, these children are disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:49:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doceo_Percepto/pseuds/Doceo_Percepto, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sp00py/pseuds/Sp00py
Summary: "I'm not a bad person," Mono says, as he proceeds to do very bad things.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares), Mono/Nosebleed (Little Nightmares)
Series: Broken Toys [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173665
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	Lake Pontchartrain

**Author's Note:**

> Title is "Lake Pontchartrain" by Ludo. A v fun song. Basic premise is mono remembers the time loops, and he's having a Very Difficult Time.

Mono met Six. They ran from the Hunter. The Hunter died, this time in a trap, with Six, feral and angry, tearing at his throat. Mono scoured his home for supplies, a bag, first, then tools and rope, but all the rope he found was far too big and course for tiny, fragile wrists. Six followed along in blatant curiosity, practically humming in excitement from feeding. Occasionally she offered a rat trap or some wire to be added to his bag. A pipe, heavy but small enough for his little hands, joined it all.

Once he felt he’d gathered enough, Mono slung the small bag over his shoulder and took Six’s hand.

The school gave him rope of an appropriate size. Dodge the traps, the lockers. When the bullies grabbed at Six, Mono smashed the pipe against the base of one of their skulls. Then he leapt with the same wild abandon of Six, who joined him in the hunt as they slammed porcelain into wood, into metal, anywhere they could crack the bullies' heads open. Mono led Six to where the bullies would have strung her up, and relieved them of their rope. He found a little plastic comb elsewhere in the bathroom, next to a bunch of shaved hair. Mono grabbed that, too.

Escape the teacher. Find her coat. Hold her hand as they disappear into the hospital.

As they crept through dangerous halls and under shelves, Mono helped himself to some of the surgical scissors the doctor had. They were rusty, but small enough for little hands.

He spotted the dirty white of a familiar gown disappear around a corner, and dragged Six to a halt. With a smirk mirrored by Six, Mono crept after Nosebleed. The sound of something falling, rolling.

She had collapsed in the middle of the hall, heading toward a vent she’d propped open. Her food containers had scattered. There were no mannequins to scoop her up right now but it wasn’t safe. Mono scrambled over, and, with Six crowding in curiously, rolled Nosebleed onto her back. His flashlight ghosted over freckles and blood spatters.

“Don’t eat her, yet,” he muttered as Six leaned down to lick experimentally. She scowled up at him. “Trust me. And help me get her somewhere safe.” Finally, she nodded.

As he and Six got Nosebleed picked up between them, Mono tried to decide where he wanted her. He didn’t want to be interrupted.

“Back that way,” he whispered, nodding toward where they had come. The hanging beds. The only danger there was falling.

Mono threw his bag to a bed, then slung Nosebleed across his back as Six leapt. He backed up, a hand tucked under Nosebleed’s knee and another holding her arm to keep her steady. If he died making the jump, oh well. They’d try again next time. But Mono felt confident. She was tall, but light from malnourishment.

Six caught them when he tumbled onto the bed and almost threw Nosebleed over the other side. Once he felt safe, he grabbed Nosebleed. She woke up groggily, pulling instinctively away as Mono dragged her closer to the headboard.

“Give me the rope, Six,” he said, holding one hand out while the other kept Nosebleed’s flush to one of the bars. He was tying her other wrist up when Nosebleed’s eyes fluttered.

She jerked upright with a pained yelp as her arms pulled at the rough rope.

“Sh,sh,” Mono hushed, leaning back to get into her eyesight, brushing at her cheeks. “It’s okay.”

“What… who are you?” Nosebleed asked, voice so quiet like when they first met. Her gaze flickered to Six, who grinned, before searching for Mono’s eyes behind his bag. He quickly shoved it up and set it aside, in some false hope that she'd remember who he was if she saw him properly. Her eyes widened as she met his dark, almost pure black gaze. Every other time, it wouldn’t bother her at all, but this round, she was tied up above an abyss while Mono and Six stared hungrily at her. He didn’t begrudge her the questioning, fearful gasp that escape.

“I’m Mono, and that’s Six,” he said as he reached forward to take one of her braids in his hand. 

“Let me go,” Nosebleed whispered as she tried and failed to pull her braid free from him. 

Mono ignored that in favor of snapping the elastic knotted at the base of her braid and working his dirty fingers through the strands. Her hair had taken on the waves of her braids, and was full of small knots from such a long time ignored. Mono began to run the comb through it, starting at the bottom and working his way slowly up.

Nosebleed whimpered, rubbing her wrists raw on the rope. Mono wasn’t worried she’d escape. Even if she got free, it was two on one. He continued brushing her hair, humming a song he had heard on TV about a boat and the sea. Briefly, he wondered if he could actually keep her, this time.

Six, who had been perked with excitement, began to grow bored as time passed and Mono just kept brushing. The repetative movements, the warmth of her hair. It was all so soothing. Mono so rarely got to enjoy quiet and calm, though, so when Six crawled forward to move things along, he shoved her back. “You said you wouldn’t eat her!”

Six mimicked hunger pangs and made fake stomach rumbles with her mouth.

Mono turned more fully toward Six. “No, you’re not hungry!”

Nosebleed kicked, knocking Mono who tumbled into Six. He barely caught her before she went over the edge. The bed was large, until you were flailing across it trying not to fall, then suddenly it seemed horribly tiny. Six knocked him aside and lunged at Nosebleed. Mono barely caught the back of her raincoat, fingers slipping as they tried to find purchase on the slick material.

“I’ll -- Six! I’ll tie her better--” Mono’s yelling did nothing to stop Six from dragging both of them forward as Nosebleed screamed and kicked more. Mono really should have tied her legs down. Another lesson learned.

Six elbowed him in the face. His grip slipped, and she launched forward with a surprised cry, knocking heads with Nosebleed. 

Through tears of pain, Mono groped for Six. Based on Nosebleed’s new pitch of screaming, Six had recovered quickly and was taking her usual approach to problem-solving already. He caught her around the waist and hefted with all the strength of a ten year old boy.

It was barely enough to get Six off of Nosebleed, They both tottered dangerously. Six was  _ not _ happy at either of them, now. And in that second that he held Six before she started clawing his eyes out, Mono realized he had no clue what to do with her.

So he dropped her off the edge of the bed.

He and Nosebleed watched as she disappeared into the void. Her screaming faded but never, ah,  _ ended _ , but soon only the sounds of Nosebleed’s frantic breathing and sniffling remained. They swayed gently on the hanging bed.

Mono flopped down with a surprised sigh. He hadn’t  _ intended _ on killing Six. Sure, sometimes she’d kill him -- shoving him out as bait, or simply not helping him when he needed it, or intentionally letting him go -- but Mono almost never returned the favor. That just wasn’t their dynamic. It made him feel strange and uncomfortable in his chest, like he was a bad friend, and he didn’t like that. But it had been to save someone, so... he was a good friend? Just not to Six?

He glanced at Nosebleed, who had fresh blood all down her front. Some from her wrists where she’d rubbed the skin open trying to escape, some from her nose, of course, and still more from a bite on her shoulder. Mono pressed his hand self consciously to his own bloody nose.

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

Nosebleed just stared at him in horror.

“We’re actually really,  _ really _ good friends.”

“Please don’t kill me,” Nosebleed said very, very quietly, cowing away as Mono came closer.

Mono’s eyebrows practically disappeared into his hair in his shock. “I would never! I just killed my best friend for you!” His shout echoed and faded into the emptiness around them. Nosebleed flinched, so Mono took a moment to calm himself. “Sorry,” he said, much more quietly. “It doesn’t usually happen like that. But this is good. Right. This is fine. I can work with this.”

Nosebleed curled up as much as her bound arms would allow. She was  _ terrified. _ Mono felt a pang in his chest that he was doing this alone now. It suddenly felt all weird, without Six’s infectious excitement. Like maybe it was wrong to treat people like this. Like maybe he didn’t  _ want _ Nosebleed to think he was bad. Because he wasn’t. It was just…

“I’m not a bad person,” Mono told her.

“Okay,” Nosebleed squeaked unconvincingly.

Sudden sharp anger flared beneath his ribs. He’d grabbed her and shook her before he could stop himself. It was dumb, being angry at her: she wasn’t seeing the whole picture, and didn’t really know what it was like, but he was frustrated all the same - why couldn’t she back him up on this anyway? Couldn’t she see it wasn’t easy for him?

“No, you don’t get it -- I’m going to save us.” His fingers dug into her shoulders. Nevermind that he hadn’t managed to yet. That it got harder and harder to care. “These loops? All these times I help _you_? I help you a lot!”

Nosebleed made a noise like a trampled mouse. He could feel her shaking beneath his grip, and her eyes darted nervously about, as if hunting for something, anything that might pull her away from him. So many times her fear had galvanized him; times when Six was breathing down his neck and reminding him that if he didn’t hurry up and enjoy himself, she’d cut his fun short. Now there was no time limit, no urgency, no game. Now Nosebleed’s fear put an ugly, sour feeling in his belly. 

Growling, he forced himself off her and took a step back. 

Her lips trembled. Her voice was a wisp, “I-I think you’ve got the wrong person-”

“No, I don’t. It’s you. It’s always you.”

“Okay.” She could make it a little  _ less _ obvious when she blatantly didn’t believe him. 

Mono rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Look, I can prove it. We call you Nosebleed, but it isn’t your real name. You used to have black dress shoes you loved. You’d begged your mom for them. She used to do your hair like that --” oh, well, he’d taken her hair out of their braids, but she knew what he meant. “And Noddy! You remember Noddy? You were so protective of her, until you got captured. Then the doctor stuck things in your head, and you dug your way out with a spoon, and now you hate Jello.”

There, that encapsulated just about everything he could quickly remember learning about her over all of the loops. That would prove it was her he’d been talking about, and nobody else.

Nosebleed stared in blank incomprehension.

“Well?” Mono snapped.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her voice wavered so much, as though knowing that was the wrong answer, that Mono had trouble understanding her at first.

He gritted his teeth. Right. Okay, no, that did make sense. “You just don’t know because you haven’t remembered yet,” he replied shortly. “You have amnesia, until Six and I-” No, this was - too scattered, too all over the place, and it wasn’t getting him close enough to the destination he wanted: her reassuring him, promising him that he wasn’t some kind of monster. Maybe even looking at him the way she’d looked at him the first several loops. Holding his hand, kissing him. Maybe doing more. He’d been in such a hurry to get to Nosebleed first the last several loops, he hadn’t gotten to actually spend much time with her at all. 

Mono raked his fingers through his hair. “All right. All right. I can explain everything.”

Nosebleed swallowed, gawking at him like he was crazy. She was shaking, terrified little tears slipping loose. Her mouth moved like she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

Mono pressed on. “Six and I are going to the signal tower to stop what it’s doing. I… actually still don’t know what that is. But we’re going to stop it, or we were, before I dropped her…” Mono trailed off, wondering what he would do now without Six to help him, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Every time we go, we just reset, anyway. Then we do it all again. We never stop it, but we keep trying -- that has to count for something, right?”

He leaned forward and took her face in his hands. Nosebleed whimpered. “That counts, right? You see? I’m not bad, Nosebleed. We’re trying to  _ help _ . We want to fix the world, but every time we try...” His voice broke in the middle. “It’s just… over and over again. The same thing. No matter what we do. It’s hard, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Stop saying that!”

“Okay.” Her teeth snapped shut so hard on the word, Mono heard the click. A bit of blood began to trickle out from between her pale, thin lips. Mono’s thumb dragged across her mouth, smearing it like garish lipstick.

“ _ You _ thought I was good,” he said, leaning in closer. Nosebleed jammed herself against the pipes of the headboard, but couldn’t go any farther. “ _ You  _ believed in me, and trusted me. You believe me now, right?”

Nosebleed opened her mouth, then shut it again, and just nodded frantically. Mono relaxed and slumped against her in a hug. He needed that. Some reminder that he was doing the best he could. That people still trusted him. That Nosebleed did, because she was the goodest person he knew.

He kissed her neck, and a violent, full-body shudder passed through her. Mono sat back, squinting at Nosebleed. She was looking anywhere but at him.

“Nosebleed?”

“Hm?” she asked the air somewhere far to the left.

“Look at me.”

Her gaze flickered over to Mono’s, before immediately shifting again. He kept staring, expectantly, and Nosebleed repeated this process a few more times, before settling on staring at his chin, as though that was some sort of compromise.

“I’m good, right?” he asked. “I’m doing the right thing?"

“Mmhm,” Nosebleed said, lips pursed tight on, he was sure, another ‘okay’.

“Say it.”

Nosebleed mumbled something, breath picking up, legs moving anxiously on either side of Mono.

Mono shook his head, leaning in a little closer. “I can’t understand you.”

Nosebleed got one of her legs against his chest and pushed. “Don’t -- don’t touch me!” She kicked again, before Mono could recover.

He threw his arms out to catch himself, but suddenly, there was nothing underneath his hands. Mono yelped as he flopped half-off the bed, scrambling for a hold and just barely catching the frame.

Nosebleed kicked him again, and he lurched sickeningly forward, world filling with nothing but the hazy abyss. But Mono had caught himself well, and didn’t fall. He clambered up again, out of her kicking range.

Nosebleed’s chest was heaving, face drained of all color, framed by a mass of wild, loose hair and splashed with blood.  _ Now _ she was looking at him, like how someone would look at their imminent death.

_ No, no nonono -- _ She had lied to him. She’d said -- Mono rubbed at his eyes, trying to banish the tears.

Mono didn’t know why it was suddenly so important, but she  _ had _ to believe him. Six was -- well, she was dead right now, but she didn’t care about good or bad. Nosebleed knew when something was good. She had to know Mono was good, too.

He mashed their lips together, tasting so much blood from her bit tongue, feeling the sting of his own lip opening on his teeth. Mono swallowed down her cries as she bucked up against him. She’d kissed him the first times because she’d cared. She had thought him worth kissing, when all the rest of the world wanted him dead. Even  _ Mono _ wanted himself dead, but Nosebleed hadn’t. He needed that from her again.

He tangled his fingers in her hair, craning her head uncomfortably as he forced his tongue in. Mono just wanted to be cared about. Nosebleed had done it before. She’d hugged him and comforted him without reservation. He didn’t know why she had to make things so difficult now.

They broke apart, his hands still gripping her hair tightly. “I’m  _ not bad _ ,” he insisted. Nosebleed cried and writhed against him. He hated how she was behaving. He’d  _ killed _ for her. Even knowing Six would be back, it hurt and Mono wanted comfort. He wanted her to look at him the way she used to. With kindness. Maybe want, even.

Her face was scrunched up and ugly with tears, so he directed his attention elsewhere. She was warm and soft, despite all the angles Mono could feel as he pawed underneath her gown. Her feet slipped and churned up the blankets under them, searching for some hold to get away from his wandering fingers as they went lower.

“You  _ know _ I’m not,” Mono said vehemently, fingers pushing into her. She was dry. He wondered if girls were always like that at first, or if it was just Nosebleed. He would have asked Six, but the last time he broached having sex with her, she’d just laughed at him. Mono suspected she didn’t even really know much about it, either.

“You know  _ me _ .”

“I don’t. I swear. I don’t know you,” Nosebleed cried, gasping in pain as Mono groped around. She was very soft, quivering around him.

It was novel, actually having time to explore her. It made Mono’s heart beat fast and his palms sweat just to touch her skin without worrying about Six ripping into her. This could be good. This could be the two of them, wanting each other and becoming close. Comforting each other, after the things Mono had to endure, and the thing he had just done to his best friend. 

He sat back and reached for his bag to draw it closer without getting himself in position to be kicked again. Mono fumbled inside until he found the scissors, then turned to Nosebleed, who made a distressed squeal at the sight of them.

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” he quickly assured her, accidentally flapping them in front of her face as he waved his hands to calm her. Mono quickly lowered them. “Sorry. I’m not going to cut  _ you _ with them.”

For some reason she didn’t relax, even as he started snipping up her gown instead of her flesh.

Mono licked his lips in nervousness as he pushed the gown open to work on her underwear. He’d never actually seen a girl naked before.

“Wow,” he muttered, like an idiot, after he cut her underwear to pieces, leaving Nosebleed trembling and exposed. Whether from malnutrition or age (how old was she, anyway? Mono found it funny he knew so much about her, but not that), she was still flat and undeveloped, but she was  _ very _ different from Mono.

Nosebleed had cute little dimples where her hip bones jutted and shadows dipping between and under her ribs. Mono trailed his fingers tentatively up from her groin, across her trembling stomach, to a pink nipple pebbled in the cold. Nosebleed made a weak attempt to get away, clearly uncomfortable with what his hands were doing.

Mono never wanted to hurt Six again, so he’d never have another chance like this. He thumbed Nosebleed’s chest, noting the way she jerked away from the touch. His fingers dragged down her ribs, back to her hips, and all the interesting things down there Mono had felt before. Her thighs were so thin, just sticks with long hollows accentuated by her straining tendons as she accomplished nothing trying to move away.

Mono traced his hands up and down her thighs, enjoying the contrast between his rough, grimy fingertips and the soft paleness of her skin.

“You’re so pretty,” he told Nosebleed, hoping to get her to relax a little before delving in again. Girls liked compliments, right? Mono worried he was doing this all backwards, but it was too late to undo everything. He wished she’d understand. 

He pawed at the folds between her legs, excitement tempered only a little by confusion. Mono wasn’t expecting  _ so much _ there, like little flaps of meat just… hanging, bunched up and wrinkly and reddish. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but it was warm, and somewhere in there was the hole he’d used before. She tensed, and he could intimately feel the movements of her muscles wherever his fingers pressed experimentally.

Mono glanced up at Nosebleed’s face. Her eyes were closed tight and face screwed up, a deep flush burning at her cheeks and all the way down her neck. She was breathing very carefully and pointedly through her nose.

He felt around a bit before easing into her. She made a noise that almost sounded like a giggle, but judging from her face was not. Again, a frantic exhalation that Mono could almost pretend was enjoyment. A few more tears leaked out as he readjusted, pulling her knees up, until she slipped fully onto him. Still dry, still tight.

“Do you -- do you remember this?” he asked, hopefully, his question stuttering as she clenched around him. A stupid question, because nobody but him and Six ever remembered, but Mono wanted so desperately for someone else to  _ know _ he was trying. Someone who knew how hard it was to be good.

Nosebleed didn’t respond, so Mono yanked her hair. “Hey! Do you -- Nosebleed!”

Her eyes opened a sliver, letting more tears free. Blood was dripping down, spattering her stomach. She shook her head stiffly, not daring to speak.

Mono leaned closer to her face. “Do you remember kissing me?” He tried. She was so tight and warm, it was hard to focus, but he needed her to remember how he was good. Needed her to tell him. “You wanted me, then,” Mono’s breath came fast and shaky. His hips rolled in jutting, impatient movements; his body far more impatient than his mind, and patience was lacking, there, too. 

Nosebleed only whimpered.

“Tell me you remember that,” Mono pleaded. He squeezed her thighs hard enough to hurt, but it wasn’t for the purpose of hurting her, not really - he was just trying to get her to respond, because she wasn’t saying  _ anything. _ “We sat together, and you looked at me, like.. like you believed in me.” 

The memory was so strong it flooded him. He jerked clumsily in her body. The slide of skin on skin melded with that old memory, her open and freely given trust. She cried out, and the distress in that cry poisoned his memory. Sour reality reminded him that it had been many, many loops since she looked at him with so much trust. But that wasn’t his fault: it was hard, doing the same thing over and over, being betrayed, disappointed, recycled again.

Mono shuddered. Tears plinked over Nosebleed’s cheeks; belatedly, he realized they were his, not hers. His guts twisted. Anger clawed back in. This was a one in a million chance, and it was getting ruined - by regret, by guilt, by all these stupid emotions, because Nosebleed wasn’t  _ getting it. _

“Tell me you remember!” He snarled, slamming into her and fighting to ignore the waver in her voice. 

She shrieked and banged her skull against the headboard in a stupid scramble to get away. Her mouth wrenched open. “I - I remember-“ she rattled off desperately, high and tinny. 

“Don’t lie-“ 

“I remember!”

His breath huffed heavily, and wild hope possessed him. “You remember?”

“Yes, yes - please stop-“

Heat tightened in his belly. “Tell me I’m a good person,” he breathed, setting a shaky, eager rhythm, in-out, in-out. It felt good if he ignored the tears streaking down his cheeks, if he tuned out her crying and bloody face. 

“Y-you’re a good person-“

_ She’s lying.  _ Mono growled at himself. Stop it. Just believe. She was telling the truth. She was telling the truth. 

“Tell me that,” he demanded, urgency in every line of his body. “Look at me and tell me that.”

Her eyes swung everywhere except to make eye contact. Why was it so hard for her to do that?! All she had to do was - “Look at me and tell me!” He fisted her hair and punishingly slammed in. He hated her stupid tears, he hated her distress, he hated  _ his  _ tears; she could make this so easy and she wasn’t -

Sobbing openly, eyes round and red-rimmed, she finally made eye contact. “You’re a good person, you’re a good person,” she rambled. Every time she repeated it, her voice pitched up more desperately, until she was howling it with each thrust.

“ _ Please _ -“ make it more convincing. Take away the guilt and the self-hatred, and - 

Mono bit through his lower lip, fighting to reach climax. 

“You’re - you’re a good person! I remember! You’re - you’re a hero -“

His orgasm tore through him. His forehead pressed to hers as he hunched double and his thighs twitched through every wave, thoughts blissfully consumed with delusions only barely maintained. 

Those delusions seeped away with the swiftly fading pleasure. His shoulders shook. He clung tightly to Nosebleed, and the next seconds were nothing but heavy breathing, sniffling, and silent tears. There was an emptiness deep inside him. A hollow. This wasn’t what he had imagined, when he’d prepared all those things in his bag for just this moment. He’d… he’d prepared so much, planning this moment like setting a scene, even though he knew she wouldn’t have recognized him, wouldn’t have wanted it.

Self-loathing burrowed deep. “You were lying?” he whispered. It was a question, but he already knew the answer. 

“No,” she replied hurriedly. “N-no-”

Mono closed his eyes. He felt weary. Weary as one who has grown up again, and again, and again…

He covered Nosebleed’s mouth, silencing her fearful protests. Mono didn’t need to hear her lying. He could feel it in the way she shook.

Mono pulled away, feeling gross between his legs. His gaze ghosted over Nosebleed, before he crawled to the other side of the bed and tucked his knees to his chest. Nosebleed sat there, open and hurting, like a testament to his wrongness. Her body shifted weakly, as though trying to hide herself, but too tired and scared to change her position from what Mono had forced her into.

This loop sucked. Six was dead (because of him). Nosebleed was traumatized (because of him). Mono was miserable (because of himself).

He slammed his fist onto the mattress. Nosebleed yelped, attention immediately on him, body tense. Mono should have felt bad for scaring her, but he didn’t. He barely even registered her, too lost in his own angry thoughts.

It was easier with Six. She kept him focused, kept him from slipping into stupid thoughts like being good or helping people. Six knew how the world worked: helping people hurt, and hurting people helped. Mono wanted to pretend he was like that, instead of this tangle of heartache and confusion.

Nosebleed’s words haunted him, a good person. A  _ hero _ . It had felt so good in the moment to hear, to think he was. It made Mono ache for that sensation again. To feel loved, validated,  _ assured _ . But Nosebleed didn’t even know who he was, much less what he’s done or suffered.

“I can’t help what happens,” Mono muttered to himself. He was just as trapped as everyone else. “It’s not my fault.”

“Okay,” Nosebleed squeaked, reminding him that she was there, specifically and only as a result of his actions. Mono glared at her, and she stopped breathing altogether.

“It’s  _ not _ ,” Mono insisted. “I didn’t ask for this! I just wanted to help people, and kiss you, and hold Six’s hand. Is that so much to ask for?”

Nosebleed began crying again, breath harsh and fast.

“Stop crying!” Mono snapped, jumping to his feet and making the entire bed sway nauseatingly.

For some reason, that just made her cry harder. She looked terrible, leaking from her eyes and nose and between her legs, and Mono hated that. Six wouldn’t have let it get to this point. He wouldn’t have had to face what he’d done, because Six would have eaten her and Mono could fondly blame her for how terrible things keep turning out.

Without Six to compare himself to, Mono was just another monster, wasn’t he? He wished he had his bag to hide behind, but it must have fallen off the bed in the various scuffles. He peered over the edge, as though it’d be sitting within easy reach on the floor, but saw only the void he’d thrown Six into.

Only a monster would kill his only friend. Mono didn’t deserve Six. He didn’t want to go on without her.

He stepped off the bed. Air cut through his hair and grabbed at his clothes.

Nosebleed screamed his name as he plunged, and he realized, belatedly, she was still tied up.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Mono met Six. They ran from the Hunter. The Hunter died. Six shoved Mono into a bear trap.

That was fair.


End file.
